For Chiang Kai-shek, Soong Mei-ling and Chiang Ching-kuo were the closest people in his life. Although Soong Mei-ling is Chiang Ching-kuo's "titular" stepmother, because the age difference between the two of them is only 12 years, Soong Mei-ling seems to have never dared to think of herself as a mother, and Chiang Ching-kuo only looks at Chiang Kai-shek's face and maintains basic courtesy and respect for Soong Mei-ling.
On April 5, 1975, Chiang Kai-shek died of illness in Taipei. His death had a huge impact on Song Meiling, and according to Song Meiling's own words, "this is the most painful thing in my life." Since then, Soong's situation in Taiwan has become increasingly difficult, until she settled in the United States alone in her later years.
So, after Chiang Kai-shek's death, how did the titular mother and son get along? How did Chiang Ching-kuo defeat Soong Mei-ling and force her to move to the United States?
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > warm and cold, open and secret</h1>
In April 1949, Chiang Kai-shek was defeated and took his family to Taiwan. Soon, Chiang Kai-shek's clique established a separatist regime in Taiwan and proclaimed himself "president," while his son Chiang Ching-kuo became "director of the General Political Department of the Ministry of National Defense" in Taiwan. As a result, the Chiang family began a 20-year dictatorship in Taiwan.
Since marrying into the Chiang family, Song Meiling has been running for Chiang Kai-shek's cause, and watching this son who is not related to himself obtain the status of "Crown Prince", Song Meiling naturally feels a strong sense of crisis. In order to ensure their future status, Song Meiling and Chiang Ching-kuo began an endless power struggle.
Therefore, Song Meiling used her name as "first lady" to concentrate on women's work, and also exerted her international prestige and external contacts to firmly grasp Taiwan's foreign affairs in her own hands.
Chiang Ching-kuo, on the other hand, followed in his father's footsteps, attached importance to youth work, and developed his own strength by controlling Taiwan's military and intelligence organs to win the hearts and minds of the people.
As time went on, Chiang Kai-shek apparently felt that his physical condition was much worse than before, so he also began to give most of the power to Chiang Ching-kuo and Soong Mei-ling. Among them, Chiang Ching-kuo was in charge of internal affairs, and Soong Mei-ling was in charge of foreign affairs.
Although Chiang Ching-kuo and Soong Mei-ling tried their best to create the illusion of "mother-son affection" in front of Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek still had a general understanding of the contradictions and entanglements between the two. In order to allow the two to get along harmoniously, Chiang Kai-shek took great pains, and even in his sickbed, he did not forget to tell Chiang Ching-kuo that he would treat Soong Mei-ling as his only mother after his death.
In order to reassure Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Ching-kuo's predecessors and successors all posed as filial piety, and he kept his promise to his father and honored Song Meiling as his mother. During that time, the relationship between Chiang Ching-kuo and Song Meiling could be described as unprecedentedly harmonious, like a mother's kindness and filial piety. However, as soon as Chiang Kai-shek died, the situation took a marked turn.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > changed the norm and pushed against each other</h1>
On April 5, 1975, Chiang Kai-shek died of complicated heart disease at the Shilin Official Residence on the outskirts of Taipei. At this time, there was no longer any concern between Chiang Ching-kuo and Song Meiling, and soon a head-on confrontation began.
Although At the time of Chiang Kai-shek's death, Soong Mei-ling was already 77 years old, but unlike Chiang Kai-shek, Soong Mei-ling's health has always been healthy, coupled with her reputation accumulated in Taiwan and the outside world over the years, there have been rumors at that time that Soong Mei-ling will take over her husband's position as "president".
Chiang Ching-kuo, who was aware of such remarks, had already prepared a series of means to prepare for the attack.
Just one day after Chiang Kai-shek's death, Chiang Ching-kuo authorized Taiwan's "JoongAng Ilbo" to publish such an article, in which he expounded at length that he had been with Chiang Kai-shek for a long time when he was seriously ill, listened to Chiang Kai-shek's heavy teachings, and in this way informed the public that he was the heir of Chiang Kai-shek's heart.
As soon as the news came out, the forces supporting Song Meiling could not hold back, especially Song Meiling's nephew Kong Lingkan rushed back to Taiwan from the United States at the first time, preparing to cooperate with the "Lady Faction" side to push Song Meiling to the position of president of the Kuomintang. As soon as this news came out, it received support from all walks of life.
Over the years, Song Meiling has not left the political arena and naturally accumulated a large number of supporters.
In the face of this action, Chiang Ching-kuo's faction naturally will not sit still. Immediately, Zhang Baoshu, secretary general of the Kuomintang Central Committee, expressed strong opposition and consulted with Chiang Ching-kuo at the first time on how to reverse the situation and smash Kong Lingkan's plan.
Thanks to Chiang Kai-shek's "words and deeds" over the years, Chiang Ching-kuo can be said to have learned a lot of means from Chiang Kai-shek, and even reached the realm where blue is better than blue. In such a situation, he soon followed his father's example and followed Chiang Kai-shek's approach to Wang Jingwei to reverse the situation.
At that time, in order to truly control the entire Kuomintang forces, defeat Wang Jingwei, and sit firmly in the position of president of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek trumpeted his respect for Dr. Sun Yat-sen and proposed that no one was qualified to hold the post of premier anymore.
This operation greatly limited Wang Jingwei, and a simple sentence made Wang Jingwei completely lose his legal inheritance rights.
Before Wang Jingwei could figure out a way to confront Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek persuaded the Kuomintang government to establish the post of president. In this way, under his meticulous planning, he directly reversed the situation, successfully won the position of president, and became the first person in the Kuomintang government.
Therefore, in the face of the clamor of all walks of life to support Soong Mei-ling's coming to power, Chiang Ching-kuo did not hesitate to publicize the contributions made by his father Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan, and also claimed that no one in the current Kuomintang government could compare with his father, so in order to commemorate his father, he would not continue to use the post of "president" in the future.
As soon as this move came out, everything that Song Meiling's faction had previously planned in the outside world collapsed directly, and soon Chiang Ching-kuo announced to the outside world that he would formulate a new title for future leaders. To this end, all members of the Kuomintang Central Committee held an extraordinary meeting to directly amend the Party Constitution and change the title of the supreme leader of the Kuomintang to "Chairman."
With a new title, it is natural to elect a president. Therefore, under the election of all the members of the Central Committee, Chiang Ching-kuo successfully served as chairman of the Kuomintang and chairman of the Central Standing Committee, while Soong Mei-ling lost power and became more and more difficult in Taiwan.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > loses power and goes to the United States</h1>
As we all know, in her later years, Song Meiling moved to the United States and did not return to China until her death. So, what was she doing to leave her hometown? In addition to chiang ching-kuo succeeding in seizing power, how did he force his stepmother to Taiwan?
In fact, in addition to the above-mentioned power struggle, Chiang Ching-kuo also conducted psychological warfare against Soong Mei-ling.
For example, everyone knows that Chiang Ching-kuo was the child of Chiang Kai-shek and his original partner Mao Fumei, and Chiang Ching-kuo's birth mother died decades ago. At Chiang Kai-shek's funeral, Chiang Ching-kuo changed his normal state and even stopped giving Soong Mei-ling a superficial respect, and even declared in front of her that he would bury his father with his own mother.
This sentence made Song Meiling, who was already in grief, even more shocked. Although the age difference between Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling is far away, the feelings of the two are definitely not superficial, and Soong Mei-ling has always regarded Chiang Kai-shek as his beloved and willingly ran for him.
And now, Chiang Ching-kuo said this obviously without putting his stepmother in his eyes. Without a backer like Chiang Kai-shek, Soong Mei Ling felt that she had no future in Taiwan, and for her, the most important thing she wanted to do at that time was to leave Taiwan as soon as possible and stay away from the land of sadness.
Therefore, Song Meiling decided to make a public written speech to explain to the Taiwanese public the reasons for her life in the United States.
She said that she chose to leave Taiwan because she could not face the fact that her husband had died, and she could not continue to live alone in the place where the couple had been living day and night; not only that, but because of taking care of her husband over the years, she also contracted an illness and needed to go to the United States for treatment.
On September 17, 1975, Soong Mei-ling set off for the United States, and it was not until April 1976, in order to commemorate the first anniversary of Chiang Kai-shek's death, that Soong Mei-ling returned to Taiwan by special plane. As soon as the memorial service was over, she embarked on a journey to the United States again.
In May 1978, the Kuomintang government officially announced that Chiang Ching-kuo would take over the "president" position, and at the inauguration ceremony, as the stepmother, Soong Mei-ling should have attended, but she pretended that she did not want to see the injuries and did not return to Taiwan.
Perhaps it was because of Song Meiling's own helplessness to withdraw from this dispute that Chiang Ching-kuo and the senior leaders of the Kuomintang government let down their guard against her, and even as time went on, Chiang Ching-kuo even remembered the days when he and his stepmother lived in peace and hardship.
Song Meiling loved power all her life, and even though she was frustrated and moved to the United States in her later years, she was always concerned about the development of Taiwan's political situation. Far away in the United States, Soong Mei-ling could not interfere in Taiwan's internal affairs, so she focused her energy on the diplomatic development of Taiwan and the United States.
Although Chiang Ching-kuo defeated Soong Mei-ling, he also affirmed Soong Mei-ling's diplomatic ability from the bottom of his heart, and in addition, after Chiang Ching-kuo succeeded to the throne, Taiwan's "diplomatic" situation deteriorated rapidly. More and more foreign countries have chosen to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, especially as Sino-US relations have developed, Chiang Ching-kuo has become increasingly uneasy.
Therefore, he cooperated with Song Meiling again, hoping that Song Meiling would help him to always observe the political trend in the United States, carry out behind-the-scenes lobbying work as much as possible, and hope that Song Meiling could inform him of the situation in the United States in time.
Not only that, in order to resolve the psychological trauma he had brought to Song Meiling and make Song Meiling willing to help himself, Chiang Ching-kuo asked the entire Kuomintang to continue to refer to Song Meiling as the "first lady" and regularly sent special personnel to the United States to visit Song Meiling to ensure that Song Meiling had always lived a life of pampering and pampering.
Finally, Soong Mei-ling gradually began to soften her heart, thinking of chiang kai-shek's ardent expectations before his death. In 1986, On the pretext of attending an event to commemorate chiang kai-shek's centenary, Soong Mei-ling once again embarked on the road back to Taiwan.
After returning to Taiwan again, Soong Mei-ling felt the same treatment as in previous years, which made her think back to the life of Chiang Kai-shek when he was alive. Once again, she could not suppress her heart, and frequently appeared in public to express her opinions on Taiwan's political development, and even told some very extreme remarks.
Although at this time, Song Meiling clearly knew that she was not likely to return to politics, such a move was not a confrontation with Chiang Ching-kuo, or perhaps she just wanted to ease her memories of the past.
In 1991, the sudden death of Song Meiling's grandson Jiang Xiaowu caused her infinite desolation in her heart, and this time, Song Meiling moved to the United States again with her full wealth.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks:</h1>
Like all imperial families in history, infighting and compromise are the "great dramas" of history. In the Jiang family, Song Meiling had a young miscarriage, and she wanted to occupy a place in the family without children in her life, and she could only rely on herself to constantly "ascend to the throne".
What's more, as a stepson, Chiang Ching-kuo did not really give respect to Song Meiling, in his heart, his "Mu Ma" was always his birth mother Mao Fumei, and the honorific title of Song Mei Ling "Mu Ma" was only to meet the requirements of his father Chiang Kai-shek.
In this power struggle between the "first lady" and the "prince", Song Meiling has never mastered the "internal affairs", and it is reasonable that Chiang Ching-kuo can defeat her. For Song Meiling in her later years, moving to her second hometown in the United States is also the best choice.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > references:</h1>
Li Yongming,Fan Xiaofang. The reason why Song Meiling did not return to Taiwan in her later years[J].People's Life, 2009(11):54-55.
Xu Qing. The Encounter of Song Meiling in Taiwan in her Later Years[J].World Knowledge, 2014(01):62-63.
Lü Jing. Political Symbols and Social Roles[D].Nanjing University,2014.]
Xiong Zhi. How Chiang Ching-kuo and Song Meiling Deal with the "Mother-Child Relationship"[J].Chinese Legends and Great History,2010,(1):100-101.